Hello ~ I'm an amateur cartographer, and right now I'm working on a new map for a campaign I'm gonna start up next month. I know a lot of people like to use random map generators simply for ease of access, but creating your own maps can be fun, too! It's always really nice to see how excited people get for a campaign based purely on how authentic your props are - and your maps are the #1 prop you should be bringing to the table. If you have time, they only take about a day to make.
Prep Work
You don't need too much to make a good looking map; your players aren't going to pay attention to extreme detail, they just want to see that you put effort into making it look cool! You just need a few things to get started.
Paper. Preferably scaled to the size of the landmass; large papers for transcontinental maps, small papers for countries.
Pencil. A faint outline of your borders & formations to lay the groundwork for ink.
Imagination! Think up a place! Imagine all sorts of countries within your map, and find space for them in the finished product.
Cheap tea. The bags can be used to stain the paper once you've finished.
Decent quality pen. Not just a ballpoint! Show that you really care for the project by using a fountain or quill pen.
Creating A Masterpiece
Remember, you don't need to roll a Nat20 to make a good map. Nothing starts off perfect!
Lines:
I start with tiny portions of the map, first. Let's say half of a bay area. Once I draw half of it in, I'll focus somewhere else! When you spend too long on one spot, your lines will always start to lose detail and you may grow frustrated with it. Change it up and leave things unfinished! Once you have enough halfway-done parts of the map, you can draw between two unfinished spots and connect them. I've found that this is the best way to avoid becoming lazy with your lines. Water should be outlined along the shoreline with some sort of marker; personally, I used dashed lines right next to the shore to show what's what.
Details:
Mountains don't just randomly appear everywhere, there's a little science involved! By creating a set path for the mountains to follow, you're creating the tectonic plates of your world. There are two types of mountain you should draw. The first is a "Connected Mountain", which is two triangles (to indicate a mountain) drawn attached to each other. This creates a pretty design for your map. The second is a "Singular Mountain" which stands on its own. Connected Mountains are much more appeasing to the eye, so you should have multiple Connected Mountains with a few Singular Mountains spread around them and on the outskirts of your mountain range.
Rivers "go with the flow", always. You should never have a river heading towards a mountain - how would it flow against gravity? Instead, try to angle your rivers to flow along the outskirts of your mountains and have them attach to various lakes and oceans nearby. To draw a river, I draw one semi-squiggly line in the direction I want the river to go. Then, I look at the line I've drawn. Have I drawn any spots where the river appears to jut out in random directions? If I have, this isn't an error, it's a spot to create a new river flow! Just before the jut out point is a part of the river that should be facing the same direction as the original line. From this, continue the river with another squiggly line. Then, go back to the new line you've created with the jut out, and expand it a little! Repeat this process and create more river flows to create an aesthetic appearance for your rivers.
Trees are the fill-in for your map. If it were purely mountains and rivers, the players wouldn't grow as attached to it as they should! By placing trees all over the map in spots where you're lacking rivers or mountains, you can create a finished look for the map.
Other terrain can also be made! I prefer to use small circles for my tundra and repeated dots for my deserts. It all depends on what kind of world you want to build! Try not to overdo it, though; you don't want to have a desert right next to a frozen wasteland! Try to keep the map as realistic as possible, and your players will fall deeper into it's spell.
Finishing Your Product
Finally, you'll want to make the map look realistic. If you did this on normal printer paper, it'll take some extra work to age. If you take the easy route and buy thinner brown paper, you should still try to age your map, though it won't take as long as with printer paper.
First, you'll want to take your pen and ink over EVERY line that you've made. This makes the map look authentic and professional, as well as make sure none of the lines are removed during the aging process. Be careful not to press too hard with a fountain pen or it'll bleed, causing your lines to look blotchy. Not all blotches are bad, though! By throwing intentional (or sometimes unintentional) errors into the mix, you make the map look more authentic and hand-made - perfect for your adventure story!
Prepare tea. Tea bags are a natural stain on paper and can very easily create a brown texture. Use cheap tea! This may take many tea bags, depending on how large your paper is. Allow your tea bag to get wet, but press it a small bit with a paper towel to make sure it's not sopping wet. Then, lightly press your tea bag into the paper. It should create a brown stain. If it comes out as mostly water, press the tea bag harder into the paper towel. If it's too dry, dip it into the water again while making sure to still press it to make sure it doesn't drip. A typical tea bag can be pressed around 5-10 times before they begin to tear and lose their staining ability. Do this to both sides of the paper.
Leave out in the sun for a minimum of 3
hours. This gives the tea stains enough time to dry. If you stained correctly, once it finishes drying you should have mix-matched splotches of brown stain all over the paper. This, too, makes it appear more authentic.
Tear the edges of the paper. Yes, you'll lose some of your map - but that's okay! No adventuring map could possibly have straight edges after being crumpled up in someone's satchel for so long!
Restain the paper with tea bags. This should make the stains a darker brown. Make sure that there's no more white (or any of whatever colour paper you began with) and both sides of the paper have been stained.
Leave out in the sun for another hour or so.
Optional: If you want to make the map appear to be more professional, you could glaze it. Any gloss varnish should work. Simply get a paintbrush and paint it on, and your map will be gleaming! Be warned, however! While this does create a pretty look, it removes the "pulled out of an adventure's back pocket" look. If you want your players to actively use the map, avoid this option. If you want to use the map as a showpiece, then by all means, glaze away!
The most important part about making maps is to have fun and create a piece that you're happy to show off to your friends and use in not just one, but possibly many future campaigns! I hope you all enjoyed or at least learned from this and that is wasn't too long. I'll just leave it up here for anyone who wants to take a looksy. :)
HighLordDukanis, I did look through the thread, though I felt as though the type of map being discussed was of a different breed. I do not have experience with creating dungeon maps, though I have done some rough sketches and used the thread as a source for information on improving that. Instead, I believe that the art of creating world maps deserves a place of its own rather than being lost within pages of a thread where it would seem oddly out of place. Thank you for pointing the other thread out to me, though! :)
Eranthius, thank you! I felt that having it be as detailed as possible would be best for helping future cartographers plan out their next big project.
Mutant_vapes27, I actually give away my maps shortly after making them! They make great gifts for friends and family as well as for other DMs in their own campaigns, and it's always nice to find them hung up someplace or hear about how they were used. I will try to find one of my older pieces and post it here when I find it :)
Hello ~ I'm an amateur cartographer, and right now I'm working on a new map for a campaign I'm gonna start up next month. I know a lot of people like to use random map generators simply for ease of access, but creating your own maps can be fun, too! It's always really nice to see how excited people get for a campaign based purely on how authentic your props are - and your maps are the #1 prop you should be bringing to the table. If you have time, they only take about a day to make.
Prep Work
You don't need too much to make a good looking map; your players aren't going to pay attention to extreme detail, they just want to see that you put effort into making it look cool! You just need a few things to get started.
Creating A Masterpiece
Remember, you don't need to roll a Nat20 to make a good map. Nothing starts off perfect!
Lines:
I start with tiny portions of the map, first. Let's say half of a bay area. Once I draw half of it in, I'll focus somewhere else! When you spend too long on one spot, your lines will always start to lose detail and you may grow frustrated with it. Change it up and leave things unfinished! Once you have enough halfway-done parts of the map, you can draw between two unfinished spots and connect them. I've found that this is the best way to avoid becoming lazy with your lines. Water should be outlined along the shoreline with some sort of marker; personally, I used dashed lines right next to the shore to show what's what.
Details:
Mountains don't just randomly appear everywhere, there's a little science involved! By creating a set path for the mountains to follow, you're creating the tectonic plates of your world. There are two types of mountain you should draw. The first is a "Connected Mountain", which is two triangles (to indicate a mountain) drawn attached to each other. This creates a pretty design for your map. The second is a "Singular Mountain" which stands on its own. Connected Mountains are much more appeasing to the eye, so you should have multiple Connected Mountains with a few Singular Mountains spread around them and on the outskirts of your mountain range.
Rivers "go with the flow", always. You should never have a river heading towards a mountain - how would it flow against gravity? Instead, try to angle your rivers to flow along the outskirts of your mountains and have them attach to various lakes and oceans nearby. To draw a river, I draw one semi-squiggly line in the direction I want the river to go. Then, I look at the line I've drawn. Have I drawn any spots where the river appears to jut out in random directions? If I have, this isn't an error, it's a spot to create a new river flow! Just before the jut out point is a part of the river that should be facing the same direction as the original line. From this, continue the river with another squiggly line. Then, go back to the new line you've created with the jut out, and expand it a little! Repeat this process and create more river flows to create an aesthetic appearance for your rivers.
Trees are the fill-in for your map. If it were purely mountains and rivers, the players wouldn't grow as attached to it as they should! By placing trees all over the map in spots where you're lacking rivers or mountains, you can create a finished look for the map.
Other terrain can also be made! I prefer to use small circles for my tundra and repeated dots for my deserts. It all depends on what kind of world you want to build! Try not to overdo it, though; you don't want to have a desert right next to a frozen wasteland! Try to keep the map as realistic as possible, and your players will fall deeper into it's spell.
Finishing Your Product
Finally, you'll want to make the map look realistic. If you did this on normal printer paper, it'll take some extra work to age. If you take the easy route and buy thinner brown paper, you should still try to age your map, though it won't take as long as with printer paper.
Creating Maps for the Table-top
Very nice! I to do maps. I'm no pro, but I sure enjoy it. I really like what you did here to show your work *and* show your process.
Thank you!
-E
Kuvshinov, do you have any completed maps? Your work is amazing, and I would love to see the finished product! Good work!! :)
- Dro Coborel in Firedeath MUST die
Hello!
HighLordDukanis, I did look through the thread, though I felt as though the type of map being discussed was of a different breed. I do not have experience with creating dungeon maps, though I have done some rough sketches and used the thread as a source for information on improving that. Instead, I believe that the art of creating world maps deserves a place of its own rather than being lost within pages of a thread where it would seem oddly out of place. Thank you for pointing the other thread out to me, though! :)
Eranthius, thank you! I felt that having it be as detailed as possible would be best for helping future cartographers plan out their next big project.
Mutant_vapes27, I actually give away my maps shortly after making them! They make great gifts for friends and family as well as for other DMs in their own campaigns, and it's always nice to find them hung up someplace or hear about how they were used. I will try to find one of my older pieces and post it here when I find it :)
Your Maps look sensational. Keep up the great work!
Understand your point. However, IMO, PhotoShop is even better for overland maps than it is for dungeon maps.
I'll try to remember to upload and provide an example tomorrow.